An Introductory Guide to PPC for Metal Fabricators

As a metal fabricator, you know how to create specialized metal parts that are custom-made for your clients. But equally important to the success of your business is the ability to create specialized marketing and advertising campaigns to bring in more customers. Otherwise, you won’t sell those metal parts.

In particular, you need to create pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. These campaigns will get your brand in front of your target audience quickly and help you drive a lot more sales. But what exactly is PPC for metal fabricators? That’s one of the questions we’ll answer on this page. In total, we’ll cover the following:

• What is PPC for metal fabricators?
• Why should your business use PPC?
• 5 tips for using PPC for metal fabrication companies

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What is PPC for metal fabricators?

PPC is a type of paid advertising where you pay for ads only when people click on them.

The way it works is that you bid for ad space at the top of search results or on third-party websites. Your bid amount and ad quality, as well as relevancy, determine your placement. When users click on your ads, you’ll pay the amount that you bid for them, and the users will be taken to landing pages that encourage them to convert.

Why should your business use PPC?

One of the biggest benefits of PPC for metal fabricators is that it’s extremely cost-effective. You don’t have to worry about paying for ads that aren’t effective, because you only pay when ads earn clicks. That means you can be sure that your PPC budget is being spent on ads that are actually driving revenue.

Another benefit of PPC is that it’s fast-acting. Unlike some other digital strategies, PPC ads go up immediately when you launch them, so you can start driving conversions right out of the gate. That’s great for when you need to start increasing your inflow of customers now.

Overall, PPC for metal fabrication companies is a fast and effective strategy for driving sales and earning more revenue than you would without it.

5 tips for using PPC for metal fabrication companies

Now that we’ve covered what metal fabricator PPC is and why your business should use it, let’s talk about what actually goes into it. After all, having a basic idea of what PPC is doesn’t mean you know how to get the most from it.

Below, we’ll go over five different best practices you can use to build successful PPC campaigns. Those practices are as follows:

1. Target long-tail keywords
2. Use different types of paid ads
3. Try out some ad extensions
4. Target custom audiences
5. A/B test your ads

Keep reading to learn more!

1. Target long-tail keywords

When you run ads in Google search results — known as paid search ads — you do it by targeting specific keywords (that is, search terms). You bid on the keywords you want your ads to show up for, and when they do show up, they appear even above organic search results.

Obviously, you want to make sure the keywords you’re targeting line up with your ad copy. If you’re running an ad promoting your custom aircraft part fabrication services, you’d want to bid on keywords like “aircraft metal fabrication” — not “what do metal fabricators do.”

In addition to targeting relevant keywords, though, you should also target long-tail keywords. The term “long-tail” describes keywords that are, well, long. That is, they’re several words long, as opposed to single-word keywords. Don’t target a keyword like “fabrication” — target something like “metal fabrication in [your city].”

The reason long-tail keywords are better is that they’re much more specific, which means you reach a more precise audience and have to deal with far less competition in search results.

2. Use different types of paid ads

One of the cool things about metal fabrication is that you can service a wide range of customers. There are a ton of different industries that need custom metal parts, so you need to create ad campaigns to reach a variety of different audiences. That means you shouldn’t limit yourself to advertising in only one format.

Regular paid search ads are just the beginning. Other types of ads you can run in search results include local services ads (for reaching users in your local area) and Shopping ads (for promoting specific products).

And you’re not limited to search results. You can also run display ads on third-party websites, which show up as boxes and banners in the margins of the site. The best approach here is to run those ads on websites that relate to metal fabrication, or that focus on industries your clients operate in. That helps you get in front of the right audience.

Plus, you can even run paid ads on social media. You might not think that’s an effective platform for business-to-business (B2B) advertising, but since the decision-makers at your target companies are often on social media, it’s actually really useful.

You don’t have to use every single one of those ad types, of course. But be sure to try out at least a few of them to help you reach a wider audience.

3. Try out some ad extensions

Another way to enhance your metal fabrication PPC ads is to try out some ad extensions. Ad extensions are additional bits of text that appear in paid search ads. The default text is just the site name, the URL, the title tag, and the meta description. But with ad extensions, you can add additional info like:

• Phone number
• Reviews
• Additional site links
• And more!

The reason this is a great idea for metal fabricators is that when your clients search for businesses in your industry, they’re likely going to want to do one of two things: Either they’ll want to conduct some research about your company, or they’ll want to contact you directly. So, including reviews or a phone number is a great way to get their attention.

4. Target custom audiences

As we noted earlier, metal fabricators can sell to a lot of different types of customers. So, when you create your ad campaigns, you shouldn’t try to hit your entire target audience at once. Instead, break it down. Direct specific campaigns at specific industries and audiences.

To help you do that, be sure to use custom audience targeting features, which most ad platforms have. You can target specific demographics, locations, and — importantly for metal fabricators — industries. That helps you narrow your ad focus, which also means you can customize your ads more to those specific groups.

The more precise your audience targeting is, the more effective your metal fabrication PPC ads will be.

5. A/B test your ads

Optimizing your ads can be tricky. Sometimes you may have a few different versions of an ad in mind, and you’re not sure which version will work the best. In those cases, you don’t have to make an arbitrary choice. Instead, you can use A/B testing.

A/B testing is where you run two different versions of an ad at once, monitoring both of them to see which one drives better results. Whichever version is more effective is the version you use going forward. You can keep doing this repeatedly to hone your ad campaigns more and more over time.

So, what does this look like for metal fabricators? Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re running a display ad that promotes your automotive metal fabrication services. You might be torn between two images, one that shows an image of a car and one that shows a photo of one of your actual products.

So, you run both ads at the same time, with some users seeing version A and some seeing version B. After a few weeks, you observe that version B is driving way more clicks and sales. That tells you that you should use version B going forward.

Propel your metal fabricator PPC to new heights with WebFX

Metal fabrication PPC can be a huge boost to your company’s success. But even with the tips listed above, you may feel unsure how to run an effective paid ad campaign all on your own. That’s why a lot of metal fabricators opt to partner with a professional advertising agency like WebFX.

With our PPC services, you’ll be able to craft ad copy and landing pages that drive tons of sales and revenue. You’ll also be able to take advantage of a variety of advertising platforms and formats.

We have over 237,500+ hours of expertise in the manufacturing and industrial industry, so we know what it takes to create revenue-driving campaigns for businesses like yours.

Interested in partnering with us? Just give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!

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